Who Am I?

I am a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, an MCP, an MCSA and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). I am also A+ and Network+ certified. I have been working in "IT" for about 15 years now. There is never a dull moment and there is always more to learn.

Web Site: http://www.riguy.com [points to new Azure-based site]
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March 12, 2013

Ping Firewall Exception for Windows Server

This one gets me every time. I set up a new Windows 2008 Server within a virtual environment, like VMWare, for example. I may do this remotely, so I like to give the good old "PING" command to verify it's live after granting a static IP address. Anyway, I go to the command prompt, and type, 'ping x.x.x.x" (X's = the 4 octet based IPs). Easy enough. Hey, everyone likes to do some pinging once in a while, right?

But what happens if you know or at least strongly believe your server is live, but you cannot ping it? Usually the local Windows Server 2008 or other firewall is the culprit. Assuming a hardware firewall or another 3RD party firewall is not blocking ports or traffic, then we need to add the PING ports to an exception list. In other words, allow the server to be pinged.

If you are not the Network or Systems Administrator, then you are barking up the wrong tree. [I love that expression].

Go to the server's Start menu and type in 'firewall adv' (no quotes). Open "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security". Go to the Domain profile. If this is a proper domain Server, then the other options should not even matter. Select Inbound Rules. If you peruse the standard rules to the right, you will not see PING. But you will see File and Printer options. Specifically you want to right click (ok, left-click if you're left handed) the top 2, the ones with ECHO and ICMP in them, and enable.

When pinging, you are in fact looking for an echo reply back, measured in milliseconds (ms). Enable them both, even if not using IPv6. You may use that sooner than you think. Again, enable these, then ping away, even from within and outside of properly routed inter-connected distant inter networks!
File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4In) - Enable
File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv6In) - Enable

Oh ... and ...
What exactly does 'ping' stand for? It stands for, 'packet internet groper'.
Seriously.

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